China after the Olympics: Lessons from Beijing

China has launched impressive green policies in the run up to the 2008 Beijing Olympics but has also missed crucial opportunities to kick start ambitious environmental initiatives across the city, says Greenpeace China in its new report ‘China after the Olympics: Lessons from Beijing’ published today.

Download the full report here

Or download by chapter:
Executive summary/The environment, Beijing and the 2008 Olympic Games
Air quality
Climate change, energy use and refrigerants
Transportation
Water and sewage treatment
Forests
Toxic materials and waste management
Olympic sponsor environmental commitments
Public engagement
Conclusion

Read the Greenpeace Olympic Environmental Guidelines - A guide to sustainable events (September 2000)

Read the press release here

Contact media officer for the Olympics 

Hans Xu 010-65546931 ext 156; hans.xu@cn.greenpeace.org
Or media line: 010-65546931 ext 199

Learn more about the environmental situation in China: The Lowdown on China's Environment

“We are glad to see the achievements the city has made so far. It has made public transport more convenient, upgraded home heating methods, reduced, to some degree, its reliance on fossil fuel, and improved water treatment,” Greenpeace China’s Campaign Director, Lo Sze Ping, said at today’s press conference to launch the Olympic report.

But Beijing missed the opportunity of the Olympics to adopt the world's best environmental practices. It could have more aggressively enforced pollution controls on industry, pursued a zero-waste policy, adopted Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification on all new construction and comprehensive water conservation policies.

Greenpeace praises Beijing for:

•    Using state-of-the-art renewable energy saving technologies in the Olympic Village
•    Setting new vehicle emissions to the very stringent EURO IV standard ahead of schedule.
•    Building five new subway lines to encourage public transportation
•    Launching a fleet of 3,759 buses running on compressed natural gas.
•    Helping 32 000 households to convert from coal heating systems to electric heating systems.
•    Establishing the Guanting wind power station, Beijing’s first wind power generation station capable of generating 100 million kWh of electricity a year.
•    Improving its wastewater treatment plants, sewage and water reuse systems. 

Greenpeace is disappointed that Beijing did not:

•    Make environmentally-friendly policies for the Games in the areas
of procurement and construction binding
•    Apply water saving technologies across the city
•    Pursue a zero-waste policy instead of building more landfill sites and incinerators.
•    Introduce an internationally recognizable timber procurement
policy, such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standard, for the
construction material used during the Games
•    Eradicate climate-damaging HFC technology in some Olympic
facilities
•    Make environmental data and certification of Olympic venues fully
transparent.

Beijing after Sydney and Athens

Beijing did more than Athens and should be commended for using the Olympic Games to improve city infrastructure and using leading energy-saving technologies in venues.

But because of poor transparency and engagement with third party stakeholders, Beijing did not match the comprehensive approach of the Sydney government before and during the 2000 Sydney Games.

Green legacy of the Beijing Olympics

Overall, Greenpeace believes that the Beijing municipal government has created a positive legacy for the capital.

As a developing country, China faces serious environmental challenges associated with its rapid growth and huge population.

Greenpeace hopes that the green initiatives Beijing employed in preparing for the 2008 Olympic Games will spread to other Chinese cities.